Facebook is copying Snapchat again

On Thursday the social network announced selfie filters for live video, which will initially be themed for Halloween. The new feature will be available in Facebook's iPhone app in the U.S., U.K., and New Zealand and eventually come to Android.

The selfie filters, which Facebook is calling Live Masks, use augmented reality to turn you into things like a skull or pumpkin. They of course look very similar to Snapchat's Lenses, which have become a meaningful source of revenue for the growing app through sponsorship deals with companies like Taco Bell.

Adding goofy filters to live video is likely intended to encourage normal people to stream on Facebook. Media outlets and celebrities are paid to share live video on Facebook, but broadcasting live lacks the casualness that apps like Snapchat provide.

Expect to see more camera-related updates to Facebook in the coming weeks. Facebook head of product Chris Cox recently said that the company is "very invested" in making the camera "a creative tool."

"It's an area of work we're really invested in, which is making it easy for the camera to be an early application of AR," he said at the Wall Street Journal's tech conference in California earlier this week.